Diamond Engagement Rings

Recently, there have been a spate of diamond robberies and it looks like it could just be attributed to times being hard. Let’s face it – diamonds are worth so much now that it would be a great temptation to anyone who needs money in a hurry.

At Newport Beach, California, a 47-year old lady forgot a bag of jewellery in her car and realised the next day that it was gone. In the bad were her diamond necklaces, diamond rings and earrings. The car, a Bentley, was in her garage. What she wants back most of all – and she’s offering a huge reward – is her 6-carat diamond engagement ring which was with the other jewellery. Unfortunately a lot of the jewellery was not insured enough so obviously the lady is quite distraught.

Vonda Simon had just returned from a trip to Europe and had wanted her jewellery appraised which was why they were all in that bag together. However, not only did she leave it in the car, she left the car as well as her garage door unlocked. And the jewellery was gone the next morning even though she lives in a gated, secure neighbourhood.

You don’t want it lying around reminding you of how he ditched you, do you? Once the guy has flown, it’s time to get practical. At least that’s what most of the Agony Aunts would tell you. And there’s a great way of doing just that right now.

The site’s called exboyfriendjewelry.com. You can go, sign up for free and hawk your diamond engagement ring there. Or even any other jewellery that he might have given you while he was still in love with you.

There’s just one condition though. When you post a picture of the engagement ring or bit of jewellery together with a description of the item you want to sell, you have to post a story of how things went bad. Get to that site and you’ll find many a story up there – it’s a great place to vent and get rid of your anger and frustration. It’s a great place to read about others’ stories too – some sad, some angry, some funny. And of course, it’s a great place to get rid of any memories of the one who hurt you.

Yes, that’s what Nicole Kidman is going to be getting from her husband Keith Urban and it could be any time, very soon. And it looks like she doesn’t know. The excited father-to-be has bought the $73,000 Cartier ring as a gift that will be given to Nicole in the delivery room. Now isn’t that sweet!

The diamond ring is a special trinity ring and it is very like the ones that Katie Holmes and Cameron Diaz own. This diamond ring is actually made up if three rings – one of yellow gold, one of rose gold and one of white gold. All three symbolise something. Yellow gold stands for friendship, rose gold stands for love and white gold symbolises fidelity. Put together, they are the three progressive stages in a relationship. It’s a wonderful all-in-one ring to show off just how a relationship like theirs has grown and blossomed.

In this case, at this point of time, the diamond trinity ring also stands for the new family of three. From being a couple and just the two of them, it’s going to be a threesome. From being Keith and Nicole, from now on, it’s going to be Keith and Nicole and the baby. Now that wonderful feeling is reason enough for such an expensive diamond ring from Cartier, wouldn’t you say? Well, some people say it with flowers, some say it with jewellery and some say it with jewellery that’s got ‘rich and famous’ written all over it!

At the Gemological Institute in the US, there’s an exhibition on and it’s drawing thousands of visitors to gaze at the dazzle and sparkle on show there. The piece de resistance of course is the Aurora Butterfly of Peace, 167 carats of 240 natural coloured diamonds which have been assembled in the shape of a beautiful butterfly. These loose diamonds were put together by Harry Rodman and Alan Bronstein of New York jewellers Aurora Gems over twelve years.

You get a whole gamut of diamond hues in these gems, along with a range of cuts. What makes these wonderful diamonds on display even more unique is the changing lighting. Every fifteen seconds, it turns from natural to ultraviolet. There’s a treat in store for people because it shows up not only how diamonds appear in various kinds of lighting, you can also see how fluorescent it looks when it comes to ultraviolet lighting.

For Bronstein, one of the jewellers involved in this creation, this process has been like seeing a butterfly emerge from a chrysalis. The Butterfly of Peace is named that because it is supposed to stand for harmony in the world – for men of all religions, races and colour.

Till the 30th of July, this display will be the focus at an exhibition titled Facets of GIA and it will be a time when there will be a lot of diamond discussions and presentations going on. There are also a number of other displays that could well take a visitor’s breath away.

She ruled the roost in the beauty stakes in Paris years ago as Miss France, a title she won in 1938. Today she’s 87 years old and she’s putting up an incredible jewellery collection for sale. Sotheby’s is the auction house that has been appointed for the task.

Lily Marinho has led a very high profile life. She was married for years to Horacio de Carvalho, a businessman and journalist in Brazil. When Roberto Marinho, the Brazilian media mogul met her, it was love at first sight. However, it was only after her husband passed away that he told her of his feelings and the couple got married. As wife of possibly the richest media man in Latin America – her husband owned TV Globo – she was feted and wealthy and adorned with jewels that were Brazilian and larger than life. Today, the widowed Lily is a UNESCO goodwill ambassador and has published a book of her husband’s writings over the years. It is a book filled with memorabilia that was released to commemorate his 99th birthday.

The collection is said to be worth anything up to eight million Swiss francs and there are a number of exquisite pieces in it. Of special mention is a pair of pear shaped diamond clips of 11 carats at the very least. This is a collection that is sure to get the diamond gatherers come running.

Many years ago, Empress Eugenie’s diamond bow was auctioned off when there was a sale of some of the royal French estates. Wife of Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie’s brooch has created something of a ripple in diamond circles. Way back when in 1887, the brooch changed hands thanks to an auction and was in the possession of Mrs Caroline Astor, an American socialite.

However, thanks to the renowned auction house, Christie’s great efforts, this dazzling piece of jewellery has come back to its rightful country and is now nestled in a corner of the Louvre, displayed to the world. Christie’s went to a lot of trouble getting this diamond bow back and offering it to the Louvre just so it would be back on French soil.

The brooch was designed by the famous Francois Kramer for the French Empress. There were a great many pieces of jewellery that were auctioned off at the time and this was one of them. Christie’s has spent a great deal of money in tracking it down and in making this return possible. The President of Christie’s, Europe is supposed to have said that, as a Frenchman, nothing could have given him greater satisfaction than this deal, considering it was a matter of national interest.

D diamonds are the ones that are top rated in the diamond hierarchy. A ‘D’ coloured diamond means the gem has an absolutely brilliant white colour and perfect shine and dazzle. So when a diamond that is not just classified as a D diamond but is also rather large comes into the market, you would think that it would be picked up in the twinkling of an eye, or maybe before you could say ‘D’!

However this was not to be as can be seen in the case of the Sotheby auction in Hong Kong. The over 72 carat absolutely flawless diamond that came up for auction didn’t even meet the reserve price. One wonders why this was so considering that there are a lot of people out there who just wait for a stone like this to pop up for sale. Could it be that the worldwide financial scene has something to do with it? Well, in this case, the diamond was later sold – one knows not to whom and one knows not for how much. It’s been said that this pear shaped D diamond was really exceptional in every way and was the third largest in the world to be auctioned.

Next on the line is Christie’s with an over 100 carat diamond, again said to be flawless. Now that will be the largest one to go under the hammer in all of Asia and it could just fetch a pretty package. One hopes it will be dazzle days ahead for this one.

That’s what the designer has named it – the killer engagement ring and it is one – literally so. One of New York’s most influential designers, Tobias Wong, having had the honour of being in the Forbes’ 100 top Tastemakers’ list, feels that this design for an engagement ring could come in pretty useful at times.

The ring itself is set with the point outside, unlike all rings where the sharp point that the diamond tapers down to is always set inside. Now setting it like this is what makes the ring a killer. Picture this: a dark cul de sac, you’re hurrying home a bit late from work and you’re hoping you can make it back without any untoward incident when your worst fears are realised as you hear footsteps behind you. Well, you needn’t fear if you have your killer engagement ring. A hard blow to the opponent’s face will leave him cut to the bone. The edge of the diamond is razor sharp and when it is set inside out or upside down whichever way you want to look at it, you have a great weapon on your engagement finger. Just one little piece of advice: to be truly effective, you need to have a diamond at least 1 carat in weight.

Logic will tell you that this isn’t quite the way a diamond should be set if you want it to shine. However, add to this the fact that the ring can be very useful in many other different situations as well and maybe there’s some merit in it. Like etching out a design on glass? Like messages on the surface of a bottle when you are marooned on a desert island? Or even better, like leaving a very clear message on a cheating ex-husband’s car with a dozen well-placed scratches?

Chunlei Guo, a researcher at the University of Rochester hasn’t quite got to the ultimate alchemist’s dream – there is still a while to go before one can change dross into gold. However, what has been achieved is probably the next best thing. Using intense laser light, it is possible to change a metal’s intrinsic property when it comes to colour. So now, you can have black platinum. One can only start to imagine the immense possibilities this will throw up as far as jewellers are concerned.

The great thing is, it works on most metals and you can have any colour. So you can have aluminium which can be changed to look like gleaming gold and titanium, tungsten, silver, gold and platinum can take on any or all of the myriad hues of the rainbow. You can have stark black or you can have a multicoloured fantasy – the only possible limits where colours are concerned will be your imagination. Think of an engagement ring where the metal is a glorious burst of colours while the diamond’s white brilliance shines in the centre. Other jewellery like bracelets or earrings can all be fashioned out of metal to match any dress you might want. Once a design is made, it can be rolled out in different colours so that each one is unique.

How it works is that the laser brings about a change in the metal’s surface and there are microscale and nanoscale structures formed which can reflect any colour or combination of colours that it is fashioned to do. Of course, the strength of the laser is immense – just think of a needlepoint of laser light emitting a burst in a femtosecond (or a really micro-mini second) that the entire electric grid in the US does. Now that’s what is called blasting your way to a colourful future.